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Educational ResearchGood TeachingSocial-Emotional Learning

Fostering Meaningful Relationships with Students

by Dr. Bruce Ellis
written by Dr. Bruce Ellis

School is already underway, teachers are scrambling to get their rooms put together, and administrators hope that this year will be easier than last year. District administrators have their plans in place and know where they would like to take the district over the next nine months. Many things may feel different about this year, but some things are constant…such as working to establish meaningful relationships with students early in the school year so that they feel more supported and are more likely to achieve their potential. Whether you are working to establish meaningful relationships with students or you find that your target audience happens to be other adults you work with, here are some tips to help make those relationships this year amazing.

What Research Says About the Importance of Relationships

Research tells us that students who have strong relationships with their teachers do better at school.

  • Positive relationships are built on positive interactions. Each of these interactions has a powerful effect on the brain. When you authentically praise a student or have a positive interaction, the student’s brain releases dopamine.
  • Social activities like talking and laughing cause the body to release the hormone oxytocin. This helps us to bond with others. Those bonds create a feeling that’s often called “psychological safety.” When students feel psychologically safe, they’re more likely to participate in class discussions, ask questions, try to do an assignment even when it’s hard, or talk in a tone of voice that’s appropriate for the situation.
  • Research supports the idea that early relationships and interactions, including those with teachers, play a central role in shaping children’s behavior and social skills. Whether you know it or not, your students are likely mirroring your behaviors. Your words and actions matter. Studies have shown that when people observe an action being performed, it activates some of the same neural pathways that would be active if they actually performed the action. This is called the mirror-neuron system. When people see an action first, they are able to perform the action more quickly than if they had not seen the action.
  • Finally, here’s one easy change to make that will foster a closer relationship with your students. Research has shown that greeting students at the classroom door each day has both psychological and academic benefits. Engagement increased by 20 percentage points while disruptive behavior decreased by 9 percentage points—effectively adding an extra hour of learning to the school day.

Did you also realize that when teachers have meaningful relationships with students, the teachers benefit, too? You have probably heard that before, but have you thought about how to make tangible changes to what you do to improve and foster such relationships? It doesn’t mean that you have to adopt a student or send one to college…it’s way simpler than that and more life changing.

Recognize the Value of the Individual

Few of us would like to repeat those formative years if we were given the opportunity. If you are fortunate, you can recall one distinct teacher that noticed you and worked to make you feel seen and valued. Rita Pearson, in her TED talk Every Kid Needs a Champion, extolled the value of relationships with students. She clearly understood that students were different, but they all had value. She also recognized that too few people in their lives recognized and communicated that value to the students. In a discussion she relates with a teacher, Rita says that students don’t learn from people they don’t like. For the full impact, I highly encourage you to watch the YouTube video.

Rules without Relationships Equal Rebellion

Josh McDowell, in one of his many conversations with and about parenting, states that, “Truth without relationships leads to rejection, rules without relationships lead to rebellion, discipline without relationship leads to bitterness, anger, and resentment.” Though he is speaking to parents, the rule holds true for other authoritarian figures in a child’s life such as teachers, principals, and other overseeing adults. This year, instead of posting some disconnected rules on the wall for your students to follow, have a conversation with them and encourage the group to come up with relevant classroom norms and how they will be supported by the group, not just the teacher. We can have all the rules in the world, but if we don’t understand where our kids are coming from and what they are dealing with, we may inadvertently cause more harm because of the lack of grace and insight we show to them.

Connect with Each Student Individually

David Jamison received viral notoriety because of his efforts to connect specifically to each student. You may have seen, via the episode of The Today show a few years ago or on YouTube, how he learned a handshake specific to each student when they arrive every morning to go to his class. If you are teaching 175 students a day, you may find this rather overwhelming. But let me encourage you to consider how you could tweak the same concept and have it work for your students so that they know when they arrive at school they have you on their side and nothing can stop them because of that.

Conduct an Interest Survey

in order to get to know your students better, consider creating an interest survey in Google or Microsoft Forms for your students. Ask them a variety of open-ended questions such as:

  • What do you enjoy doing when you are not at school?
  • What do you want to be when you grow up?
  • What are you excited about this year?
  • What worries you about this year
  • Is there anything else you would like me to know?

Asking such questions can give you insight into experiences and situations that may help you better differentiate instruction for your students. Let them know that the survey is private, but that you would appreciate them sharing with you so that you can craft a very engaging and meaningful learning experience for them in your class. If you’re not sure where to start in creating an interest survey form, check out these Google search results to get you started or you can look at various images to get an idea of questions to ask.

So, how will you communicate value and build relationships this year with your students and/or peers? Leave us a comment below and let us know how you are making this happen in your classroom.

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Educational ResearchGood Teaching

The Best Approach to Use: Acceleration, Remediation, or Intervention

by Lori Gracey
written by Lori Gracey

As educators return to school, we are hearing the phrase “learning gap” a lot. I mean, A LOT. Administrators are understandably worried about the lower-than-average results on the different state assessments. School boards are being pressured by upset parents and government officials to “get the scores up.” And caught in the middle are the teachers who must make sense of how to help students grow academically this year more than ever before.

Many different approaches are being tried, and lots of education-ese buzz words are being thrown around. In talking with teachers these past few weeks, three words keep rising to the top of the list: acceleration, remediation, and intervention. Let’s take a look at these three and see what each means and when is the best time to use it.

It’s important to note that all three strategies have at their core helping struggling students to achieve academic success. However, the differences between them “are critical to determining what sort of environment, time, and approach might be required to best serve your students.”

First Things First

Before starting a new content unit and deciding what instructional approach is best for a particular student or group of students, it is necessary to benchmark their learning needs. Simply starting at the beginning of the unit and working our way through it does not guarantee academic growth. Instead, you must gather data that can help you answer the following questions:

  • What do they already know? (Here, the data must be broken out by individual student to determine any necessary grouping strategies.)
  • How deep is their understanding of the topic? (Are they at surface, deep, or transfer learning levels?)
  • What are they confused or have misconceptions about?
  • What other roadblocks may be in the way of their mastering the content (such as poor vocabulary or low reading level)?

With answers to these questions, you can now think about the best approach to take.

acceleration

Source

Acceleration

“Acceleration is the concept of teaching grade-level material but weaving in stopping points periodically to address a small missing piece in fundamental understanding before popping back up to the original skill” (source). Acceleration is best used when the majority of the students in the class need help with a particular topic or skill. The biggest benefit of this strategy is that is stops the cycle of constantly reviewing below-grade level content with struggling students, keeping them forever behind. And, new research from TNTP (The New Teacher Project) indicates that acceleration does indeed work since the brain is flexible enough to allow and thrive in these short pivots in instruction. The research has shown that it can help to combat years of academic inequities.

Please note that the term “acceleration” is often also used to describe the process of having gifted students move through traditional curriculum at rates faster than normal. This can be done with grade-skipping, early entrance to kindergarten or college, dual-credit courses such as Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate programs, and subject-based acceleration (like when a fifth-grade student takes a middle school math class). This is not the acceleration being discussed in this blog.

Accelerated learning strategically prepares students for success in current grade-level content. It readies students for new learning. Past concepts and skills are addressed, but always within the purposeful context of current learning. It is forward looking, not backward.

For acceleration to be successful, the teacher must access students’ prior knowledge and then teach prerequisite skills that they must learn at a pace that allows the students to stay engaged in grade-level content and lays a foundation for new academic vocabulary. It provides laser-focused instruction on the specific skills and content that students need in order to learn the new grade-level material at hand.

Here are two examples of acceleration:

  • In fourth grade math where students are to learn multiplication of fractions by a whole number, the teacher must first quickly address their unfinished conceptual understanding of what fractions represent.
  • In an English/Language Arts class, ninth grade students who are reading A Raisin in the Sun might first need to quickly build their historical knowledge of redlining and the Great Migration. Both could be done easily with non-fiction texts that support the novel.

Remediation

Remediation has come to mean “teaching again,” having the teacher focus on content that students did not learn in previous years as they should have. This typically means that struggling students are working on below-grade level content a large portion of their time. Remediation focuses on drilling students on isolated skills that generally have little to do with the current topic being studied.

Most often, remediation works best at the lower grades. Once students have moved on to more complex subjects without the necessary background knowledge and skills, remediation becomes a vicious cycle of them never catching up. For it to be successful at all, the teacher must help students learn the content in a new way than was previously used with them. Just doing the same activities or teaching it as the same process will not work.

Intervention

Educators are probably most familiar with this approach as we see it in two common models: response to intervention (RTI) and multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). It is a “formal process for helping students who are struggling, where research-based instructional approaches are implemented around very specific skill deficits and where progress is regularly tracked” (source). Where acceleration and remediation are often done with up to 80% of a class, intervention is usually done with a much smaller percentage (15% or less). That means that intervention can be targeted and tailored for each student’s individual needs, which often requires a team of educators to work with each child.

What It All Means

So when should a teacher use acceleration and when should she use remediation? Many experts argue that in today’s world, remediation is rarely successful. Suzy Pepper Rollins’ 2014 book, Learning in the Fast Lane: 8 Ways to Put All Students on the Road to Academic Success, provides a useful table comparing acceleration and remediation.

acceleration

Next Steps with Acceleration

In the next blog in this series, we’ll take a look at what research says must be in place for effective acceleration to occur.

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a man in a tie speaks through a megaphone
Leadership

Five Benefits of a District-Wide Communication Platform

by John Karstetter, Guest Author
written by John Karstetter, Guest Author

When our school district wanted to replace existing classroom communications apps nearly four years ago, we searched for a solution that could streamline our operations, provide oversight of all communications, and adhere to our district’s privacy requirements. We found what we were looking for in a safe and secure platform for all school-home communications.

Now, all campuses, departments, and teachers use the platform to send phone, text, email, and app notifications to parents via a unified solution. Parents have one place to go for school-home communications. Our district can maintain good communication oversight from the district level to the classroom, ensure compliance, and save time.

Five Benefits of a District-Wide Communication Platform

Here are five ways our school-home communication platform helps us work smarter, better, and faster:

  1. Streamline volunteer background checks. We were using a separate volunteer management platform to handle the background checks and the process was time-consuming for both staff and parents. We worked with our communications platform partner, ParentSquare, to integrate the background check process into our communication platform. Now parents (via their existing accounts) can start their background checks with no additional login required. The platform handles submitting the form to the background check provider; when results are returned, the volunteer record is updated immediately.
  2. Organize volunteer signups. Our platform also ensures that only parents and volunteers who have completed their background check are allowed to volunteer. For everyone else, signups are disabled. This means that school administrators and teachers no longer have to manually verify volunteer status.
  3. Accelerate manual processes. Because our school-home platform is cloud-based, we no longer need as much IT support, nor do we have to manage data synchronization. We field fewer help requests than before and have fewer platforms and data sync processes to maintain. We can turn around requests for new forms, permission slips, and background checks in a fraction of the time that it used to take.
  4. Improve attendance notifications. Before syncing our attendance information with the platform, our district’s system could only notify parents of unexcused absences at the end of the day. This created considerable lag time both for parents and for the school when it came to determining whether students skipped class or if they missed school for legitimate reasons. Now, unexcused absence notifications are sent out twice a day, and parents can excuse an absence immediately via the app or desktop portal. This saves our school staff considerable time that used to be spent clearing voicemail
    messages and manually updating student records.
  5. Use forms to gather information. We can easily send permission slips, media releases, or address verification forms right to parents. Recently, our administrators approached the district tech team, requesting help getting parent permission for a language proficiency test run through a third-party company. Using our communications platform, we set up a new form and sent it right out to parents. We delivered that form electronically and as an attachment to print, sign, and bring in (parents could choose whichever method they preferred). The tech team delivered quickly, staff had less administrative overhead, and we received parent replies much faster than we would have with our old system.

822,000 Messages and Growing

During the 2020-21 school year, approximately 174 district messages, 4,816 school messages, 22,842 classroom messages, 3,510 group messages, and 822,000 direct messages were generated across the district.

With our school-home communication platform, we also have metrics and dashboards for
tracking which schools, principals, staff, and teachers are communicating with our parents. We
can also track how many parents open messages and how they respond. Having this district-wide insight has been invaluable.

Photo by Pressmaster from Pexels


John Karstetter is a communications specialist at Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD.

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Announcements/Important Dates

TCEA Responds to Release of STAAR Test Results

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

Note: This post was originally published on TCEA.org.

Texas educators provided heroic service to their students and communities over the last 16 months. In dire, ever-changing conditions, they responded with heart and hard work to a challenge that has changed all of our lives — and TCEA commends the remarkable things our dedicated educators continue to do, whether making learning work remotely or in person.

Today’s report from TEA, reviewing a set of results limited to math and reading STAAR tests for 2020-21, underscores the need for improved preparation and the coordination of best practices for learning with technology so that educators can be better prepared for the next challenge than they were for this one. 

Many educators were left with little guidance on implementing technology, constantly changing tools and requirements, and changes to many of the traditional incentives to test preparation. Notably, the consequences of state testing were relaxed, so that many students would not be held back due to test scores, all while students and families alike struggled with issues like limited access to high-speed internet, economic impacts, changes to daily routines, and even the death of loved ones lost to the pandemic.

When the pandemic struck, Texas schools and districts were already under-resourced to understand the ways technology could complement their teaching strategies, whether on campus or online. As health precautions initiated a necessary break from not only in-person schooling, but nearly all in-person interactions, educators were left trying to understand new and changing learning management systems, hunting for professional development that was up to the times, and having almost no time to acclimatize themselves to remote learning environments. During this time, schools implemented remote learning, in which the entire learning process occurs online. Many types of teaching with technology, like virtual learning and blended learning, involve a mix of in-person instruction and support through virtual tools. That means that the challenges faced with the unexpected move to remote learning cannot be understood as a general indictment of learning with technology.

Furthermore, educators were tasked with building positive relationships with students and families who were beset by rapidly-evolving circumstances, all while educators themselves were working through such a tough time themselves.

We’ve clearly seen the importance of social-emotional learning over the course of the pandemic. With loosened requirements, stressed educators, and students struggling with the life-altering changes of a pandemic, teachers and administrators should be praised for building positive relationships with students and helping prevent even greater learning loss.

At TCEA, we put our knowledge and our network into action, sharing free resources for remote learning, hosting successful professional learning events online, and developing dozens of new online, self-paced courses to help teachers gain confidence in research-backed instructional practices for technology use and integration, from effective math teaching to remote and blended learning. 

“In the past 16 months, we’ve seen a remarkable effort by teachers, administrators, parents and guardians, and entire communities all uniting to make learning happen in the most difficult and unexpected circumstances. Educators worked hard, despite these challenges, to prevent learning loss at a time when students and teachers alike were struggling with little time to implement new ways of teaching and learning, little guidance on the best practices of remote learning, and with their own lives turned upside down,” said TCEA executive director Lori Gracey.

“It’s my hope that greater focus and clarity can be brought to the ways we teach with technology. It’s one of many tools educators can use, and one that cannot be ignored. TCEA is working with a purpose to ensure that educators have the confidence they need to use technology to reach every student, no matter the conditions.”

As we look forward, we hope this report illustrates the need for greater resources, collaboration, and coordination when it comes to digital teaching and learning. The kind of remote learning put into place in 2020-21 was a stopgap, and not the thoughtful implementation of tested ideas that should define online learning, much less any kind of educational technology. 

Further, this time has shown us that technology is not going anywhere. In fact, it is growing. If we hope to truly prepare students for their lives after the test, we must understand that remote work is growing, and that technology literacy and skills are vital for our children — and their educators — to be prepared for whatever the future holds.

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Digital LiteracyLibraries

The History of the School Library

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

This post is part of a series celebrating National Library Week. Learn more about NLW events, activities, and resources here.

Mary Kingsbury was the United States’ first official school librarian. In 1900, after decades of growth in the public library system, schools began considering hiring trained professionals to manage libraries on their campuses. Kingsbury set the example for generations of librarians, teacher-librarians, media specialists, and other library professionals. Since then, what a library is, how it works, and what a librarian does has changed.

Here’s a brief description of the evolution of school libraries and the dedicated experts who run them.

Beginnings

In some ways, classroom libraries are as old as classrooms, especially in the earliest years of public education when teachers were often the only person with books at all — a fact which necessitated sharing. In the United States, school libraries were suggested as early as the pre-Independence era, with National Library Week sponsor, the American Library Association (ALA), noting:

… in 1740 Benjamin Franklin recommended school libraries as a key element in the ideal academy, and the Penn Charter School in Philadelphia designating a specially designed room as the library in 1744.

“First School Library?”, American Library Association, March 28, 2011. http://www.ala.org/tools/first-school-library

As noted above, by the turn of the 20th century, the need for a class of trained, professional librarians in American schools was leading to the creation of certification exams and the hiring of the inaugural generation of specialists in school libraries. Since then, the role of librarians, and the school library itself, has expanded greatly.

Changing World, Changing Roles

As the field grew, new ideas were tested and best practices for organizing, choosing, and sharing materials spread. By the mid-twentieth century, school libraries were commonplace throughout the U.S. Over the course of the century, standards were developed, associations formed, and librarians made ever-more professionalized. 

Meanwhile, the same period of time saw continued growth in printing, publishing, and graphic design. Similarly, as schools generated well-educated graduates, newspapers, books, and more grew, too. 

By the second half of the century, however, the ways we communicate began to change. After two world wars and the intense Cold War space race, tech was changing how we access information.

The Rise of Tech

Roles continued to change with the rise of new technologies, especially the digital technologies that eventually gave rise to word processing, asynchronous learning, and, of course, the internet.

In addition, audio-visual materials became a central focus of all kinds of librarianship, particularly in schools, where various ways to access knowledge is vital. In 2016, education researcher Lois D. Wine noted this trend, and how it evolved as A/V moved from slide projectors and film reels, VCRs, and laser discs to digital video, streaming, video calls, and all the many forms of communication we contend with today. 

Notably, Wine draws a connection between librarians and instructional technologists, a relatively new and fast-growing profession tasked with technology integration and the intersection between pedagogy and technology.

With the advent of the Information Age in the middle of the 20th century and the subsequent development of personal computers and the Internet, the American Library Association (ALA) recommended schools and colleges begin integrating information literacy into students’ learning …

School librarians and instructional technology specialists have complementary roles that would benefit students and staff through a collaborative team approach to support. When educating future school library practitioners LIS educators need to be aware of this evolution in practice and adjust curriculum accordingly.

Wine, Lois. (2016). School Librarians as Technology Leaders: An Evolution in Practice. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science Online. 57. 207-220. 10.12783/issn.2328-2967/57/2/12. 

Today

With these changes, it’s easy to see how librarianship has evolved since Ms. Kingsbury became America’s first official school librarian. Today, librarians and media specialists, along with teachers, teacher-librarians, administrators, and instructional technologists work together to integrate useful information technologies that augment good teaching and connect learners with more resources and paths into learning.

Notably, in today’s diverse, broad, and sometimes divisive media landscape, digital literacy has become a central part of school libraries. Indeed, at a time when some may question the value of physical libraries in the age of the internet, it’s also clear that librarians can act as trusted guides, equipped with the latest tech and insights, to shepherd learners on their journey. In this way, contemporary school librarians have new and vital roles, in addition to the traditional running of an in-person learning hub.

Future

There’s little doubt similar trends, changes, and flexibility will be required in the ways we connect students, educators, staff, and students with information. What are your thoughts on the future of school libraries? How do you hope to use your library to influence learning in the future? Share your reflections and ideas in the comments section.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

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Cybersecurity

CryptPad: An Encrypted Office Space

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Most of us dwell in closed ecosystems for our work. You may depend on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace to provide a safe working environment. And, for the most part, it is. At least, until you fall prey to an act of phishing, typosquatting, or plain, old social engineering. What if your work could be in the cloud but secure? What if no one, not even Microsoft or Google, could access your confidential data? The solution is closer than you think.

Data breaches exposed 4.1 billion records in the first six months of 2019. See the list of data breaches in 2020. If all the data breaches have you worried about safeguarding sensitive data, learn how you can protect your own and your organization’s information through TCEA’s Data Guardian online, self-paced course.

The Power of Collaboration

One of the main reasons Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets are popular is the power of collaboration. You can start working on a Google Sheets document, then invite half your campus to join in. Or maybe you want to type a sensitive letter to a parent or administrator. Google Docs and Microsoft Word Online make that a simple matter.

The power of collaboration, made simple for the masses, brings with it potential security issues. Some issues that have arisen include:

  • Google Drive links that trick users into thinking a communication was a safe internal document
  • Google Drive-originated messages that appear to be legitimate
  • Using Google Forms to solicit fake credential-swiping

Once you give your login credentials away, it doesn’t matter how safe the system housing your files. That’s why it’s important to embrace multi-factor authentication. Even with your login and password, it’s unlikely a hacker will have your smartphone with its authenticator app and a code that renews every sixty seconds. If someone gets your login credentials, though, they have full access to decrypted files and can view whatever they want.

Sure, you can pay for BoxCryptor or use Cryptomator (free). But that may be more than you want to deal with.

What if there were another way?

cryptpad

Another Way

If you wish there was a safe, collaboration space for confidential note-taking, then check out CryptPad. This France-based tool provides you with one gigabyte of storage space for free during COVID-19. Otherwise, registered users get fifty megabytes. And you don’t need to know how to encrypt content; CryptPad handles that for you.

CryptPad is unable to see the following data you generate:

  • Your password
  • The content of your pads
  • The titles of your pads
  • The names of the contributors
  • Your username
  • The types of pads you create

You may be wondering what “pads” are. Pads can include a variety of files, including:

cryptpad

As you can see, this provides a nice alternative to office documents (e.g. rich text as word processing, presentation, and sheet). You also get a poll, kanban, and whiteboard, as well as a CryptDrive where you can create new pads.

Interested in a whirlwind tour? Let’s check out three pads that you may be curious about.

Sheet Sharing

Working on a spreadsheet? You can share that spreadsheet in various ways via CryptPad. Those options include View, Edit, or View once and self-destruct.

cryptpad

Whiteboard

Given the prevalence of whiteboards, having access to a secure one is kind of cool. You knew you wanted to have a secret meeting with an encrypted whiteboard! No one will know how you may be planning to re-structure the faculty lounge or divide up your classroom.

cryptpad

The CryptPad Whiteboard features image insertion, multi-colored markers, secure sharing access, and export to PNG image format. As you can see, it’s pretty bare bones and simple. That may be what you need so you don’t get lost in a maze of digital tools.

Kanban

If you are engaged in project management (and who isn’t these days?), you may find a Kanban board helpful. You can customize the column headers and add individual items. Sure, you could do something like this in a variety of spaces. But where could you do it where it was saved in encrypted format?

cryptpad

CryptPad Works For You

Maybe CryptPad is TOO much encryption, but you never know what level of security you’re going to need. As a result, CryptPad provides powerful encryption for popular office needs. Give it a try.

Feature Image Source

Screenshot by author. cryptpad.jpg.

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legislative priorities
AdvocacyCTO/CIODigital LiteracyFundingLeadership

TCEA’s 2021 Legislative Priorities (Part 2)

by Jennifer Bergland
written by Jennifer Bergland

Last week, we took a look at some of TCEA’s legislative priorities for the 2021 session of the Texas Legislature. This week, we explore digital learning topics and policies.

Legislative Priorities for Digital Learning

Technology Planning

legislative priorities

Technology is ubiquitous in our society. Almost every aspect of our day is powered by technology. This is true for a school district as well. This has required many districts to quickly adapt as they strive to find personnel that have the level of technical expertise that is required to support sophisticated networks, teachers who can leverage technology to support student learning, and staff with the skills to analyze data that was once only needed in the corporate world. The network and equipment these staff members need must also be purchased and maintained in a safe and secure environment. All of this must be accomplished with limited funds. But none of this is possible without careful planning. Currently, Texas school districts are not required to create, follow, or update a technology plan.

Teacher Readiness

In a recent report written by Common Sense Media, it was noted that 56% of teachers felt that lack of training is a “significant or extremely significant problem.” The quick pivot to remote learning was taxing on many teachers. They were unprepared to adapt to the demands of knowing how to use the conferencing platforms, but also how to integrate the technology tools within their pedagogy and their content. In 2011, when districts lost the Technology Allotment, many schools disbanded their instructional technology training teams. These districts had used their Technology Allotment funding to pay for personnel to train their teachers. When that resource was eliminated, so were those positions. We are still reaping some of the consequences of the loss of that dedicated technology funding. 

legislative priorities

Digital Literacy

There is a mistaken assumption that since most children and teenagers have a smartphone, they must be digitally literate. Knowing how to use a consumer product and how to utilize digital technology for work and learning are two separate skill sets. The digital literacy skills that students need today are complex and require not only access to a variety of technologies, but also instruction and guidance in how to leverage digital resources in order to research, create, analyze, curate, and collaborate as they are acquiring new knowledge and skills. At the same time, they need to be taught how to protect themselves and their data since much of their life will be lived online. 

Technical Support

legislative priorities

School districts often have the largest and most sophisticated networks within a community. These networks must support the growing technical demands of the school district while protecting the student and staff personal information from cybersecurity attacks. These networks and the digital devices that access the networks require technical staff that can keep up with the demands of a large scale deployment of devices. They are often understaffed and underpaid, but they are committed to the core mission of the school district. These dedicated personnel are managing complicated networks and face many security challenges. Keeping them trained and staffed at a level that is manageable is a challenge. It requires funding for technical equipment, salaries, and training to provide the level of support required to ensure the technology is always available and is safe to use. 

Recommendations to address the various components of digital learning:

In the 85th Legislature, SB 810 required the SBOE to update the Long Range Plan for Technology at least every five years. The SBOE updated the plan and added it to the appendix of the Long Range Plan for Education in 2018. The Texas Education Agency brought together a group of stakeholders together to reimagine what is possible if we utilize technology within our educational environment. TEA then took this group’s ideas and built a plan that, if enacted, would address the barriers identified by TCEA. 

The plan has already been developed and approved. To address the barriers of digital learning, the state now needs to implement the plan. Below is a list of actions we believe the Texas Education Agency and the ESC’s should do to assist districts in implementing the Long Range Plan for Technology (LRPT). 

  • The Texas legislature should provide appropriate funding to accomplish the goals and strategies in the LRPT. These funds would support the following activities: 
    • Create a task force made up of district and state stakeholders to establish benchmarks that districts can use to measure their progress in implementing the LRPT. 
    • Require districts to write and adopt a three-year technology plan that demonstrates how they will align their district’s goals with the LRPT. 
    • Establish a Digital Teaching and Learning grant that districts can use to implement their technology plans once they are approved by the state. These grants should be available for all districts that submit an approved plan. 
    • TEA, ESC’s, and educational technology nonprofits should provide districts with support as they implement their plans. This could be in the form of, but not limited to: 
      • Technical support and advice
      • Professional development for both administrators and teachers
      • Workshops on best practices for implementing digital instructional materials 
      • Technology planning advice
      • Exemplar districts who exhibit best practices are identified so that other districts could contact and visit them. 
  • The Texas legislature should also: 
    • Replace the outdated time-based system (Carnegie unit) of awarding credits and funding with one that is based on a student’s competency.
    • Allow school districts to create their own full-time or part-time TxVSN school, if only within their own district boundaries. 

In Conclusion

After reviewing our legislative priorities, you can see why we see 140 days as the biggest barrier to making these priorities a reality. Our enemy is the clock, not our policies. Throw in a pandemic that has negatively affected the state budget and will decrease our access to legislators and their staff members and you can see why it is imperative that we focus on a few of our major priorities. Broadband has been a priority of TCEA’s for more than eight years, but the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the chances that it will also be a priority of the Texas legislature. We are hopeful that some meaningful legislation will be passed on broadband policy.

We will look for ways to move all of our legislative priorities forward, but the clock, the budget, and access will make this a difficult session. If you are interested in following our progress and you are a member of TCEA, be sure and join the Advocacy group in the TCEA Community. If you are not a member, consider joining and/or come back to the blog for updates and check out my Twitter feed @jbergland. And finally, if you want to get more involved in TCEA’s advocacy efforts, email me at jbergland@tcea.org.

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Schoology
ChromebooksLMS

Three Fantastic Solutions to Schoology Problems

by Miguel Guhlin
written by Miguel Guhlin

Have a Schoology question that needs answering? Struggling through the use of a learning management system (LMS) on your own can be tough. Thank goodness for other educators out there who are figuring it out. In this blog entry, I’ll share three questions that generated discussion in the Schoology Educator Community.

1 – Mirror My Second Screen, an iPad

“I am having to teach from home for the next 2 weeks.  I thought I could connect my iPad to my laptop and use it as a second screen.  Would this work?  What should I do?  I have to be able to show how to work out math,” asks Jess. This is a tough one that isn’t particular to Schoology. Some of the responses educators shared include the following:

  • “Join the zoom call on both devices. Present your screen on your iPad. See app list below.”
  • “You can use a locker shelf or something similar and run Zoom on both the iPad and your laptop. (Have the sound off on one of them to avoid feedback).”
  • “Get the $20 phone holder gooseneck mount. It works with a variety of smartphones.”

Those first two solutions are great because they mean you don’t nee to go out and buy something else. You will need an iPad app that allows you to have a whiteboard. Here are some apps that you can use, but may need you to spend money on an in-app buy:

The problem with most of those apps is the recurring cost.  You will have to decide if it is worthwhile. Tools like Whiteboard.chat, Google Jamboard, and AWWApp work great on your computer.

Source: Matthew Patty, Northside ISD

A second grade teacher I know well decided to invest in a document camera. She’d rather draw on paper or traditional whiteboard she has. The camera, the HUE USB Camera, connects via a USB port. This makes it easy to get Zoom to use it as an alternate source for video/images. Get the HUE document camera from Amazon for about $90. Prices are going up, I notice so you may want to shop around.

Schoology

Another possibility? Try Sidecar. It allows you to mirror your Mac screen to your iPad. For Chromebook users, the Dualless extension simulate a dual monitor. Looking for more solutions like this? Explore the Teach Without Wires: Mirror Your Device blog entry. It features one of the solutions I’ve invested in, Mirroring360.

2 – Requiring Video Viewing Before Assignment Access

“Is there a way to make sure a student views a video lesson before they have access to the assignment?” If you have students that skip the video on their way to complete an assignment, you can try to stop that in Schoology.

Two approaches that work some of the time include completion rules and magic words. Be aware that you can use completion rules to stop them. After a few seconds, they are able to continue to the assignment. Another way is to put a password or “magic word” in the video. This word becomes the first question in the assignment.

Two solutions that you can try that work well include:

It’s a shame Schoology lacks a more foolproof solution, but do try EdPuzzle or PlayPosit. Either solution will cost you money.

3 – Disabling Assignments at Grading Period’s End

“It is the end of our first nine weeks! Is there a way to do a MASS disable of assignments? Our cut-off day is today, and I don’t want them working over the weekend and messing up my grades! HELP!!!!” That can be a bit of a bummer. You have all your grades set, and then students turn in more of their work.

Schoology

Source: Use the Lock Option in Assignment view, Schoology

Here are a few responses to this question:

  • Put all your assignments into a “First Grading Period” folder and then unpublish it. If an assignment is not published, students are unable to see it. You, as the teacher, will still be able to see the assignments in the unpublished folder. Your Schoology administrator does need to have enabled this option that ensures that unpublishing assignments doesn’t result in a removal of grades.
  • Another option is to lock assignments, but that may be time-consuming if done after. When you set up the assignment, add the lock with a future date to ensure the assignment can only be completed during the acceptable time.

It appears that the best solution is, “Lock assignments after a specified time (e.g. one week after due date). No late submissions allowed.”

Sharing Schoology Solutions

Need any more ideas for getting things done with Schoology? Be sure to check out the TCEA’s Schoology Educator online, self-paced course. You may also want to explore the TCEA Community.

Schoology

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CybersecurityDigital Literacy

Three Easy Strategies for Computer Security

by Andrew Roush
written by Andrew Roush

November is a big month for computer security. The 30th happens to be National Computer Security Day, a nice reminder for students to reflect on their “digital hygiene” and assess what might be going well and where improvements could be made. If not reminded, students may forget that they should back up their electronic devices, run antivirus programs, and watch out for any suspicious websites they may come across regularly. This is especially important if they are using loaned or borrowed equipment for extended periods of time from their schools.

Some students may feel confused when it comes to protecting their laptops and devices, but there are some easy strategies educators can implement, whether teaching in person or virtually, to help their learners feel empowered and safe online. There are plenty of computer security tools available that offer a variety of benefits and fit most budgets, so it is important to assess what exactly your students’ needs are within the classroom environment to make the best decision for you.

Download a Password Manager

Generally speaking, the more services that are offered online means the more online accounts one has to make in order to use those services. More online accounts means there are more passwords to remember, and most people default to using different variations of the same password because it is easier to remember. Although convenient, this poses a security risk. If there was ever a data breach, your password could be used by a hacker to log into your other accounts and steal sensitive information.

On the other hand, some people are good at creating unique passwords, but are bad at remembering them. A common way this is dealt with is either by writing each unique account down on paper or on a note-taking app on a frequently-used device. Paper is the preferred method here, as an electronic copy of all your private information could easily be deleted or corrupted, but paper can just as easily be thrown out or discarded by accident as well.

To prevent either scenario from happening, there are programs called password managers that you can download which store your information in one easy place on your laptop or computer. This is a great tool for students because they may forget what they set their passwords to, and a password manager can easily find and populate your account information into login screens.  

Install a Firewall

Securing your digital accounts is a great step in the right direction for digital hygiene. Next, you might want to take a look at your computer’s network security. Most computers offer some type of malware protection as an add-on when it is first purchased, but it is a good idea to check your computer to see if you have protection or if it may be expired.

If you discover that most of the classroom computers don’t have adequate protection, consider investing in a next-gen firewall program. Firewall technology can detect potential threats in web traffic before they reach your system, which is definitely an advantage if you’re teaching full classes, virtually or in person. The added security of advanced systems may not be the first thing administrators would want to consider spending their budgets on, but it will surely be worth the money saved on potential cyberattacks as schools continue to navigate learning from home. Alternatively, there are a few cheap or free options for securing data.

Purchase a Webcam Covering

One of the easiest ways to make an immediate impact to your personal security on your device is to buy a cover for your webcam. In the current Zoom Era, video conference meetings are the so-called new normal, and it might be worth having manual control over who can and cannot see you. 

Although you can turn your front-facing camera off in your settings, it might be worth it to place a physical covering over the camera when you are done with meetings for the day. It can give parents peace of mind knowing that their families aren’t being watched if they are at risk of a cyberthreat, and it also adds another layer of protection against potentially awkward Zoom mishaps.

The end of November marks the beginning of the festive holiday season which is going to be celebrated very differently this year than years before. Families will be relying on their tech devices working properly now more than ever to help spread the merry spirit, and viruses are going to be the last thing on everyone’s minds. To help the holidays run a bit more smoothly this year, consider using one or two of these strategies and tools to help keep everyone’s spirits bright.

Photo by cottonbro from Pexels

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data privacy
CTO/CIOCybersecurityDigital Literacy

Addressing Data Privacy in a Time of Online Learning

by Rachel Jane, Guest Author
written by Rachel Jane, Guest Author

With October designated as cybersecurity awareness month, there’s a great deal to focus on. Indeed, the argument can be made that the conditions we’re living through in 2020 have brought cybersecurity to the forefront of people’s attention more than ever before. With more people working, teaching, and learning remotely, we are simply relying more on technology — and navigating all of the risks that come with that reliance.

This set of circumstances can open up all sorts of interesting and important conversations. In this one though, we’re going to look specifically at some ways to address and protect data privacy in an online learning environment. For teachers, school administrators, parents, and students alike, it’s important to keep data privacy in mind. And the following tips and ideas can help with that effort.

Take Advantage of Encrypted Ed Tech

The term “encrypted ed tech” would have sounded obscure, to say the least, just a year ago. Now, however, it’s something more school systems are looking into as a means of making sure that the vast troves of data changing hands in remote learning environments are protected. Naturally, it’s already expected that teachers, students, and administrators will take basic security precautions when handing this data — device passwords, good judgment, and so on. But encryption can add another layer of data security.

The idea of endpoint encryption for data protection is simply that information changing hands — between students and teachers, teachers and administrators, and so on — is encrypted within ed tech programs. This all but eliminates the possibility of data being intercepted or improperly exposed in the course of its transfer and storage, thus protecting the privacy of all involved.

Use Well-Made Devices

Much of the focus in ed tech and remote learning concerns software tools, but plenty of teachers and students are also working with devices more frequently — from laptops and tablets to mobile phones, and even smart speakers and voice assistants. By and large, these devices don’t pose many privacy risks people aren’t aware of. They can be protected against through passwords, encryption, secure network usage, and standard precautions. But more dependence on devices also means that the devices themselves have to be well made and secure.

Ultimately, more goes into the security of modern devices than most of us take the time to recognize. It begins with the internal printed circuit board, which is basically the instrument through which electric signals are passed. Once upon a time, these were relatively standardized, but today, the thickness of a printed circuit board and the style of its design can help to make it more secure and durable, even if it’s facilitating complex connections. By a somewhat similar token, a robust and modern battery is also a necessity. A weak or unreliable battery can easily overheat or die out quickly where modern device usage is concerned. And in fact, the same goes for an internal processing chip.

These internal electrical and mechanical concerns have more to do with security than privacy. Inadequate parts can make it all the more likely that a device in heavy, day-to-day use will break down or malfunction in such a way as to compromise student or teacher data. For that reason, even though they can be more expensive, well-made, and reputable devices are best whenever it’s possible to obtain and use them.

Adopt Cloud Storage

This is something a lot of schools and school systems have already done or looked into, and fortunately, in 2020, the idea of cloud storage is fairly ordinary. But it is still something that should be considered with specific regard to data privacy in online learning situations. Cloud networks are designed in some cases to be both more accessible and more secure than local storage, making them excellent choices for the storage of class-related data. Additionally, cloud storage can be backed up on a regular basis so that even a perfectly innocent system or device failure won’t result in the loss of saved data.

Specifics can change according to a schooling situation, but generally now would be a wise time to set up cloud environments that teachers, parents, and students can all access, so that all relevant data can be kept in a reliable digital location (ideally with tiers of access or separate folders for different purposes).

Be Transparent About New Tools and Processes

The final point is that it’s also important for all involved to be open, transparent, and communicative about new tools and processes that are being implemented to assist with remote learning.

Between communication programs, storage options, digital learning tools, and devices, there can be a lot for people to get used to as they adjust to remote learning. This is all well and good, but it also poses a challenge. Anyone using an unfamiliar system or tool without full knowledge of how to use it can make himself vulnerable to data breaches unwittingly. Thus, it’s important that when new tools and processes come up, there is open and thorough dialogue about how to use them, and how to do so in a way that protects privacy.

Photo via Pexels

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